Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (ANK)
Mangaluru, Sep 22: After several protests and controversy over renaming St Aloysius College Road as Mulki Sunder Ram Shetty Road, the former chairman of Vijaya Bank, the road from Ambedkar circle to Catholic Club will be renamed as Mulki Sunder Ram Shetty road on September 23 at 9 am, said a statement released Mangaluru city mayor Diwakar.
It may be recalled, back in 2017, the proposal of the city corporation to rename the road between Ambedkar Circle and Catholic Club via Light House Hill to be renamed as Mulki Sunder Ram Shetty Road had led to protests and controversy. After the decision faced opposition and the renaming was kept in abeyance, it was questioned in the high court through a writ petition. The high court had granted stay against the implementation of the order.
Even the students of St Aloysius College marched to the streets on the controversial road renaming issue.
A fact finding committee was formed headed by then deputy commissioner to look into the demands made by various parties relating to renaming of Light House Hill road. It may be recalled that after the city corporation put through processes to rename this road as Mulki Sunder Ram Shetty Road and it was approved by the ministry of urban development, objections had been received and different parties had staked their claims seeking to rename this road as St Aloysius College Road, Bavutagudda Road, and Idgah Road. The decision was put on hold at the behest of MLA J R Lobo.
At its meeting, the committee collected supplementary documents from four parties who had been insisting that this road should be named as per their demands.
Even the representatives of Vijaya Bank Officers’ Organization said that they had obtained legal sanction for renaming this road after former chairman of their bank and that MLA J R Lobo had written to the government and secured a stay against the process of renaming the road. They noted that even the city corporation had approved the proposal to rename Light House Hill road as Sunder Ram Shetty Road. Karunakar Shetty, Seethacharan Shetty, Raghuram Suvarna and Rajgopal Rai, who appeared on behalf of the organization, claimed to be in possession of all records to prove their claim and reiterated their demand to christen the said road as Sunder Ram Shetty Road.